July 17

Birthdays:

1954 ~ Angela Merkel, 8^th Chancellor of Germany.

1950 ~ Phoebe Snow (d. 2011), American singer and songwriter.

1947 ~ Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, second wife of Prince Charles.

1935 ~ Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor.

1929 ~ Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician.

1920 ~ Gordon Gould (d. 2005), American physicist and inventor of the Laser.

1917 ~ Phyllis Diller (d. 2012), American comedian who paved the way for female stand-up.

1913 ~ Bertrand Goldberg (d. 1997), American architect and designer of the Marina City buildings in Chicago.

1912 ~ Art Linkletter (d. 2010), Canadian television personality.

1899 ~ James Cagney (d. 1986), American actor.

1898 ~ Berenice Abbott (d. 1991), American photographer.

1889 ~ Earle Stanley Gardner (d. 1970), American lawyer and creator of Perry Mason.

1888 ~ Shmuel Yosef Agnon (d. 1970), Israeli writer and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1763 ~ John Jacob Astor (b. 1848), American businessman and financier.

1744 ~ Elbridge Gerry (d. 1814), 5^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under James Madison, but died 18 months into his term.  He is best known for the term “gerrymandering”, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the intent to assist a particular candidate or party.

1698 ~ Pierre Louis Maupertuis (d. 1759). French mathematician.

Events that Changed the World:

2014 ~ Malaysian Flight 17 was shot down over the Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.

1996 ~ TWA Flight 800 on its way to Paris, France, exploded shortly after take-off, off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people aboard.

1955 ~ Disneyland was opened in Anaheim, California.

1945 ~ Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin met in Potsdam, Germany to decide the future of a defeated Germany following the close of World War II.

1938 ~ Douglas Corrigan (1907 ~ 1995), an American aviator from Texas, took off from Brooklyn, New York, ostensibly to fly back to Long Beach, California, but instead ended up in Dublin, Ireland.  From hence forth, he was known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.

1936 ~ The Spanish Civil War began.

1918 ~ The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors from the RMS Titanic, sank off the coast of Ireland.

1917 ~ King George V of the United Kingdom issued a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal family will use Windsor at their surname.

1867 ~ The Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, making it the first dental school in the United States.

1821 ~ Spain officially turned over the Florida territory to the United States.

1762 ~ Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, became the Czar of Russia upon the murder of her husband, Peter III of Russia.

1429 ~ Charles VII was crowned King of France.

Good-byes:

2014 ~ Henry Hartsfield (b. 1933), American shuttle pilot who kept cool under pressure.

2014 ~ Elaine Stritch (b. 1925), The American Broadway actress who brought sass to the stage.

2009 ~ Walter Cronkite (b. 1916), American broadcast avuncular journalist who was America’s favorite anchorman.

2008 ~ Chuck Stobbs (b. 1929), American baseball pitcher who gave up baseball’s longest home run.  On April 17, 1953, he pitched to Mickey Mantle, who blasted a 565-foot hit that is regarded as the longest home run ever.

2006 ~ Mickey Spillane (b. 1918), American author of detective stories.

2005 ~ Edward Heath (b. 1916), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

2005 ~ Geraldine Fitzgerald (b. 1913), Irish-American actress.

2001 ~ Katharine Graham (b. 1917), American newspaper publisher.

1980 ~ Boris Delaunay (b. 1890), Russian mathematician.

1967 ~ John Coltrane (b. 1926), American musician.

1961 ~ Ty Cobb (b. 1886), baseball pitcher.

1959 ~ Billie Holiday (b. 1915), American singer.

1944 ~ William James Sidis (b. 1898), American mathematician.

1918 ~ The Czar Nicholas II Alexandrovich (b. 1868) and his entire family, including Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (née Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, b. 1872), Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (b. 1895), Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (b. 1897), Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (b. 1899), Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (b. 1901), and Tsarevich Alexei Nilklaevich (b. 1904) were murdered by the Bolsheviks.

1912 ~ Henri Poincaré (b. 1854), French mathematician.

1903 ~ James Abbott McNeill whistler (b. 1834), American painter, best known for his painting officially entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, but more commonly known as Whistler’s Mother.  He died 7 days after his 69^th birthday.

1887 ~ Dorothea Dix (b. 1802), American social activist.

1845 ~ Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl Grey (b. 1764), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1793 ~ Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d’Armont (b. 1768), assassin of Jean-Paul Marat.  She was executed by guillotine 4 days after killing Marat.

1790 ~ Adam Smith (b. 1723), Scottish economist and philosopher.

1762 ~ Peter III of Russia (b. 1728), husband of Catherine the Great.

924 ~ King Edward the Elder of England (b. 877).